Taking Submissions: Waffle-Fried Issue #1

by · Published · Updated

Deadline: January 20th, 2025
Payment: Contributors Copy
Theme: Longing

Have you ever eaten cold waffle fries in your underwear at like, 2am? No? Well, you should.

Leftovers you’ve convinced yourself you’ll heat up later and eat but then just eat them by the light of the fridge – though it’s unclear why you’re in your underwear. It’s a wonderfully strange experience and that’s kind of what we’re aiming for. A wonderfully strange experience but in words and art.

Got a piece that doesn’t quite fit elsewhere? We want to read it. Experimenting with format or style? Love it; send it our way. We want your abandoned words, your collection of phrases tucked away in your Notes app, that strangely-written but oddly elegant poem that doesn’t play well with others. We’re looking for hybrids, lyrics, prose, poetry; whatever you’ve got, we’ll read (within reason).

 

Issue #1

longing [ˈlôNGiNG]
noun
a yearning desire

 

Waffle Fried is currently accepting unpublished creative non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, journalism, and visual art that explores the theme of longing – whether it be for something or someone once had or never found, the tale of the one who got away, or even an overwhelming craving (for waffle fries, perhaps?). However you interpret the theme is what we’d like to see, so long as it obviously fits.

Published authors and artists will receive a print copy of Issue #1, which may or may not be available for purchase.

Submissions can only be sent via Duosuma. Any submission sent by email will be deleted without being read.

Word count limit for fiction and creative non-fiction is 2,000 words. 

Poetry line limit is 30.

General Guidelines

While we’re open to basically anything, we do have some things we won’t tolerate or consider.

Artificial Intelligence

If you include AI as part of your piece and there’s a genuine purpose that it serves, please disclose this with your submission. Other than genuine, necessary, brief use….absolutely no AI.

Absolutely no hate

We do not tolerate bigotry of any sort: racism, homophobia, sexism, antisemitism, transphobia, ableism, etc. If you’re wondering if your piece may fall on this list, please do not submit. We do not tolerate hate speech or discrimination. This is not negotiable. Work that violates this will be disregarded and submitters may be banned. 

NSFW

We’re really not into reading super NSFW pieces. Swearing is fine, but we’re not interested in smut or gratuitous violence, especially sexual violence. 

Content Warnings

We’re people and because we’re people, we’ve lived through some shit. While CW/TW are not required, they are greatly appreciated when it comes to sensitive topics. If you’re unsure if your piece needs one, add it.  

Unpublished pieces only, please

We’re reasonable, though, so if it’s appeared on social media or a blog, we’ll consider it but please disclose this when you submit. 

Translations

Translations are fine. Interweaving English and another language is also fine.

Simultaneous submissions

YES. Definitely. We’re writers, we get it. Send your work out into the universe but please notify us immediately if it’s accepted elsewhere. 

Editing

Look, we’re not looking for perfection but please send us work that you want out in the world. While a couple of spelling or grammatical mistakes are understandable, work that will require significant editing will not be published. 

Compensation

Published authors and artists will receive a print edition of the issue they are published in. 

Resubmitting

If your piece is not accepted, please wait one month before submitting again. Unless specifically requested, do not submit a piece that has already been turned down but edited. We understand that rejections suck and we try to include feedback or a personal response rather than those form rejections that can sometimes extra suck (and trigger imposter syndrome and rejection sensitivity dysphoria? No? Just us? Weird, but ok)

If your work is accepted, please wait six months before submitting again. 

Formatting

Our submission manager, Duosoma, will guide you through this, but we accept doc, docx, pdf, jpg, tif and png files.

We’re not picky about font but for the love of God do not use Comic Sans (even if graphic design is your passion). Reasonable font size please and preferably 1.5 or double spaced. 

What We Print

Poetry

We love all types of poetry except forced rhyming and meter. Send up to three poems, all on the same document. No real length requirements but keep it reasonable. Anything more than two pages is too much.

Creative Non-Fiction

We’re looking for almost every type of CNF except academic pieces or critiques. We love lyric essays, memoir, personal essays, etc. Please limit length to 1,500 words. 

Fiction

We’re interested in micro, flash fiction and short stories. Being a small, print edition magazine means we can not publish your book.

Visual Art

We love photography most of all – especially photography that includes people (consenting or in a public place). We also love digital art, painting, calligraphy, mixed media, and graphic design. Absolutely no AI for visual art pieces. No exceptions.

If you’re not sure which genre your work falls into, submit it as what feels right to you. Pieces that blur the lines between genres are pretty cool and we’re not hung up on labels anyway. 

Submit at: Duotrope.

Via: Waffle-Fried.

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